[table][row][color=#2e2c2c][sup][h3][b] ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅[right]▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅[/right] [/b][/h3][/sup][/color][/row][row][cell][sup][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220926/43c74abc6809d9843ed7c485004bd16e.png[/img][/sup] [sub][sub][center] [img]https://i.pinimg.com/564x/5e/eb/a3/5eeba3d0e4d57dc00158edb5d96338bd.jpg[/img] [/center][/sub][/sub] [sup][color=426f76][b]█ [sup] [/sup]location: the forest [url=https://open.spotify.com/track/4rJSq9z60yScNTlJ4Lvpei?si=f61350514f294a8c][color=426f76]♫[/color][/url] [/b][/color][/sup][indent][sup][/sup][/indent][center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/824488408562794527/970459343667494932/unknown.png[/img][/center][sub][color=#2e2c2c]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/sub][/cell][cell][center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/824488408562794527/967592442486460476/unknown.png[/img][/center][indent] [color=gray][sub] It was easy to say the creature had escaped its temporary prison as something much less solid appeared to be running sometimes behind, sometimes just a few feet to their side, seemingly having caught up to them. It looked like black smoke with fast legs and glaring white eyes, a figure not decipherable as anything comprehensible. But Simon, Manon and Scott knew these eyes, they knew the chill that ran down their spines every time they got a glimpse of the dark smokey figure before it seemingly vanished - just to reappear a moment later in the corner of their eye. Chasing its prey. Just as they were about to see the end of the forest before them, their view was blocked by the creature. The smoke manifested into the figure they'd seen before. A black dog-like creature with bright white eyes shining bright. And then its gaze dropped onto Simon and the boy began to feel something pull on the very essence of his being, his soul perhaps. Since he had not experienced it before, it was hard to tell. Simon began to feel weaker the longer the gaze of the dog lingered on him, pulling all the energy from his body, slowly and painstakingly. [/sub][/color][/indent] [center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/824488408562794527/967592442486460476/unknown.png[/img][/center][sup][color=#2e2c2c]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/sup][/cell][/row][/table] [color=gray][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [img]https://i.imgur.com/JHhrrzF.png[/img] [color=EFD7AD][i][b]Location[/b] [color=bdbdbd]⋗[/color] [/i][/color] The Forest [color=EFD7AD][i][b]Interactions[/b] [color=bdbdbd]⋗[/color] [/i][/color] Simon [@Prosaic], Manon [@PatientBean], Stormy [@Blizz] [color=EFD7AD][i][b]School of Magic[/b] [color=bdbdbd]⋗[/color] [/i][/color] Necromancy, Illusion & Divination [color=EFD7AD][i][b]Items[/b] [color=bdbdbd]⋗[/color] [/i][/color] 1 Dagger, small component pouch [img]https://i.imgur.com/15FWbtH.png[/img][/cell][cell] [right] [color=2c2e2e]_[/color][img]https://i.imgur.com/fzX25TY.png[/img] [/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][/color] [indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent] [color=dimgray] Zhalia kept pace with Phalko for a moment until they jumped through literal space, teleporting themselves ahead. Though Zhalia didn't mean to slow down, she did nonetheless. Turning her head while keeping just a bit ahead of the rest of the group, making sure she kept them in her eyesight. But the shadow was haunting them. The creature was stalking them, giving them space just to taunt them with its reappearing presence. Something had to be done. She could not fight it here. She did not want to fight it here. [i]An undead creature I can't pin down...[/i] Her necromancy was her most trusted tool, she knew her skills, and she knew the extent of them well. Zhalia turned around once more, stopping in her tracks, a tight grip on her dagger. She studied the surrounding trees, waiting for the beast to show itself once more. Her sense for all things necromantic had clearly indicated this creature to be necromantic in nature. But she could not pin down what exactly it was. [i]A ghost perhaps? But then I would have picked up on it...[/i] The mystery of this dog's original perplexed her. [i]You're not an omen at all, are you?[/i] Her eyes kept slowly studying the tree line around them. [i]Where are you?[/i] The group caught up with her and as she began to walk again, intending to keep with their pace this time, the creature appeared right in front of them. She immediately took on a readied stance when Simon suddenly weakened and seemingly sunk into himself. Without hesitation she threw her dagger straight at the beast, aiming for its eye. The dagger went through the beast as if it was nothing but smoke and air though it had regained its solid look. The gaze of the beast whipped over to Zhalia. A painful draining feeling immediately surfaced within every muscle of her being and she couldn't stop herself from dropping to the cold forest floor. Every cell in her body felt like it had been starved of nutrition for months though she felt no hunger. Her eyes had trouble focusing as she attempted to press herself up from the cold floor. "[color=EFD7AD]Run[/color]", she told the others. Every inch of her body was in a constant, dumbfounding pain that felt like it would never end. It wasn't excruciating pain but it was so [i]tiring[/i]. Her energy was dwindling with every second. "[color=EFD7AD]Go, now![/color]" She could fight the creature. She was sure she had faced worse. She would find the strength to get up. [i]I will get up. Just get up. Do it. Move, you stupid useless muscles![/i] She pressed her hands into the cold floor and lifted her upper body up with all the might she could muster. [/color] [/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]